Longtime Rockville Centre resident passes away

Posted
Thursday, November 29, 2012 9:48 am

Albert Davis Jordan, a 56-year resident of Rockville Centre, passed away in his home on Oct. 29. He was born in Yonkers, New York, on Sept. 8, 1917, to Albert C. and Marion Davis Jordan. The oldest of seven brothers, Davis, as family and friends knew him, was endowed with quiet determination and an air of gentle authority. He lost his mother to illness at the age of 16.

Jordan attended Fordham Prep in Yonkers and was accepted into Columbia University’s accelerated joint degree program and graduated with his law degree in 1941. During World War II, as executive officer of a sub chaser, he and the crew survived a shipwreck in the Atlantic. Later, in the Pacific Theater, he commanded a destroyer escort in the decisive Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Jordan married Vera Radford Lally in 1947. The couple eventually settled in Rockville Centre, where they raised their seven children. Davis practiced corporate and securities law as a partner in two prestigious Manhattan firms, Valicenti, Leighton, Reid & Pine and later, Cole and Dietz. At 75, he retired from the Chicago-based firm, Winston and Strawn.

One of the highlights of Vera and Davis’s shared life occurred when they purchased a second house at West Gilgo Beach, Long Island, in 1971. They spent every subsequent summer at the beach. Mr. Jordan served the West Gilgo Beach community in many capacities, including as pro bono counsel and also as president of the WGB Association.

Jordan was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Vera Lally Jordan. He is survived by their children: Marion Jordan; Albert Davis Jordan, Jr. and his wife, Louise; Anita Jordan Johnston and her husband, David; Denise Jordan Lozowski and her husband, Gary; Aileen Jordan Carell and her husband, Richard; Christine Jordan Banfield and her husband, Dean; and Paul Jordan, as well as 12 grandchildren, two great grandsons, and three brothers, William Jordan and his wife, Louise Jordan; Edward Jordan; and Brian Jordan. He will be much missed by his family and by his many loving friends and relatives.